Minimum-wage increase may be Rep. George Miller's swan song

Andrew S. Ross

Updated 4:50 pm, Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Photo: J. Scott Applewhite, Associated Press

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Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., leaves the House chamber after the final vote on a massive $1.1 trillion spending bill, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2014. Miller, a San Francisco Bay area liberal and dean of the California congressional delegation, announced Monday that he will retire when his term ends, closing a 40-year career on Capitol Hill. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) less

Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., leaves the House chamber after the final vote on a massive $1.1 trillion spending bill, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2014. Miller, a San Francisco Bay area ... more

Photo: J. Scott Applewhite, Associated Press

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The net neutrality ruling might bring in more money for Internet service providers like Comcast.

The net neutrality ruling might bring in more money for Internet service providers like Comcast.

Photo: Matt Rourke, Associated Press

Minimum-wage increase may be Rep. George Miller's swan song

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Strange bedfellows may help retiring Bay Area Rep. George Millergo out on a high note.

His final signature piece of legislation - raising the minimum wage - has gotten a boost from a most unlikely source: Fox News' Bill O'Reilly.

"I say fine, up it. I don't think it's a big deal," O'Reilly said on his show on Friday. To $10.10, as Miller's bill calls for? "Ten bucks is OK with me," he said.

Who could have seen that coming?

"That's one of the most interesting indications of where the world might be going," said Julia Krahe, a staff member of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, chaired by Miller, D-Martinez.

Other indications: the growing number of co-sponsors for Miller's Fair Minimum Wage Act - 174 in the House at last count - a supporting letter signed by 75 economists, including seven Nobel laureates, a majority of Republicans as well as Democrats in recent opinion polls favoring an increase, and minimum wage raises that took effect in 13 states, red and blue, on Jan. 1.

Another surprising ally, Phyllis Schlafly, best known for her opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment, weighed in last week suggesting that increasing the minimum wage as a way to reduce welfare spending is "a trade-off Republicans could support."

But the world isn't there yet. Despite support from conservative pundits, no Republicans have signed on to Miller's bill. A spokesman for House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R- Va., said last week Democrats "cannot be taken seriously on wages." As one Democratic staffer said, the push on minimum wage "probably has to be a deafening" before seeing the light of day.

And it's still got a ways to go. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, a co-author of Miller's bill, which would raise the federal minimum to $10.10 an hour over three years and index it to inflation, said a Senate vote could occur in the next few weeks. Or later.

"There will be more than one opportunity for Republicans in the Senate to change their minds," he said Tuesday. "But $10.10 is a bottom line - we cannot go below that."

Will Miller get to see it before he bows out? "The congressman is firmly of the opinion that it is not a question of 'if' but 'when,' " said Krahe.

Road hogs: One factoid that amazed me from Tuesday's federal court ruling overturning net neutrality was how much Internet bandwidth just two content providers take up during prime time: over 50 percent.

Netflix accounts for 32 percent - a staggering amount by itself to this layperson - and Google's YouTube uses 19 percent. Made me think they should pay at least some of their way.

Sure, it further enriches Comcast, Verizon and AT&T, who already make more money than God. But then Google (third-quarter profit: $3 billion), and Netflix (40 million subscribers, $1.1 billion revenue, and stock up over 400 percent) aren't exactly pikers.

Still, the punters don't seem to like it, sending Netflix stock down more than 2 percent to $330 a share on Wednesday, and Google down a smidge. Verizon, Comcast and AT&T? All up.

In addition to companies possibly facing higher costs down the road, customers likely "will have to pay more," said a Wells Fargo analyst.

If it's any consolation, as a $7.99-per-month Netflix subscriber, I'd be willing to pay a dollar or two more a month, so long as it promises no more "loading" interruptions when I tune into "Orange Is the New Black."

And a word of warning to Comcast, my Internet provider that costs a small fortune: I'm getting more and more into this streaming thing (I highly recommend the French series "Spiral" on Netflix) and have started to think about cutting the cord anyway.

Data diving: A multicity hackathon aimed at penetrating dense files published by governments in the name of "open data" begins Friday in San Francisco, as well as New York, Chicago, Washington and Buenos Aires, among others.

The aim, says one of the organizers, Marc Joffe, a former director at Moody's Analytics and now principal consultant at Public Sector Credit Solutions in San Francisco, is to more easily "analyze such documents and extract the news stories they contain," with open-source tools like Tabula.

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